Regardless of whether or not they include a drain ensuring electrical continuity for the screening, most prior screened electric cables are not suitable for having conventional connectors mounted thereon, which connectors are designed to be mounted on unscreened cables in practical and rapid manner by conventional types of connection device, in particular by using automatic machinery, since the connection devices do not provide connection with the screening of the cables at the same time as they connect with their conductors. It is therefore necessary to use special connectors which are relatively uncommon and which are connected to a cable by operations that are lengthly and expensive, and which provide connections of uncertain reliability, particularly when the cable conductors include a drain conductor.
The document U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,125 describes a flat coaxial cable provided with screening, the cable including an outer conductor projecting from one of the sides of the insulation or two outer conductors projecting from two sides of the insulation, with the, or each, projecting outer conductor making contact with the screening.
Such a cable cannot be mounted in a zero insertion force connector in compliance with conventional standards and it cannot accept the pins of staple-type connectors, whether they be longitudinal (Berg system) or transversal (AMP system), which provide both electrical contact and electric charge drainage simultaneously.
The object of the present invention is to provide a screened flat electric cable suitable for being connected to a similar cable after mere stripping by an operation that is simple and quick, using zero insertion force connectors or connectors having longitudinal or transversal staple-type pins, which connectors provide reliable connection.